Abstract
The paper aims to review public administration education in the higher education institutions in Bangladesh, and their role in ensuring modern public services. Most universities in the country offer public administration degrees; however, minimal contributions to nationbuilding have been observed. The study asks: what are the pitfalls behind this? How to address the limitations? This is a qualitative study with gleaned data, using inductive content analysis to investigate the phenomenon with three case universities indicating the link between curriculum and learning delivery at the universities in Bangladesh. The research finds that poor development-oriented public administration education has little correlation to national development. The education system is traditional, where typical cultural features are nonchalance and indifference towards domestic demands. The discipline cannot create a distinctive identity and position in academia, which has consequences for the advancement of the administrative system in a developing country like Bangladesh. A research-informed curriculum with innovative pedagogical approach might be an alternative. The paper enlightens both academics and practitioners, as literature on public administration education in Bangladesh has been scarce. It calls for higher education institutions to reassess public administration education, teaching methods and research for national development.
Highlights
Public administration is ‘a social reality of people and organization’ as well as ‘a specific academic field of study, i.e. the science or study of public administration’ (Rutgers, 2010: 3)
What is the current status of public administration education as an independent discipline? Second, to what extent is the public administration education able to realise the contextual reality in educating both current and future civil servants in Bangladesh? Having reviewed the existing curriculum and pedagogics of public administration education programmes in three higher education institutions (HEIs) in Bangladesh, this paper makes recommendations for future curriculum development in this discipline
The first research question is: ‘what is the current status of public administration education as an independent discipline?’ We observe that many universities in Bangladesh have a separate Department of Public Administration under the faculty of social science
Summary
Public administration is ‘a social reality of people and organization’ as well as ‘a specific academic field of study, i.e. the science or study of public administration’ (Rutgers, 2010: 3). Unlike many other field of studies (e.g. poltical science, sociology), public administration as a separate academic discipline came in late, with developing countries following the developed nations without realising the pros and cons (Huque, 1992). As a result, it suffers from a lack of context-driven teaching approaches. Another reason is that it was treated as a sub-discipline of political science, and political scientists were not cooperative enough for the development of public administration as a distinct academic discipline
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